Guts
"Guts" is the second episode of the first season of The Walking Dead Rewrite. It is the second episode of the series overall. Plot Rick unknowingly causes a group of survivors to be trapped by walkers. The group dynamic devolves from accusations to violence, as Rick must confront an enemy far more dangerous than the undead. Synopsis In a camp set in a quarry outside of Atlanta, survivors are busy with various tasks. From the roof of an RV, Dale watches the perimeter of the camp. Meanwhile, Amy dumps mushrooms from a bucket into a bowl held by Lori, who sits at a fire pit. Amy asks how to tell if the mushrooms are poisonous, to which Lori replies they would have to eat one to know. Amy, unsatisfied with that method, tells Lori to ask Shane when he gets back. Lori nods, before she excuses herself to look for more mushrooms in the forest. She tells her son Carl, who's playing in the dirt, to stay where Dale can see him. Dale also tells Lori not to go too far, either. He promises her that he will come when she will call for him. Lori heads into the forest alone, unnerved by the sounds of snapping branches and moving brush, while she bends down to search for more mushrooms. Suddenly, someone grabs her from behind. Lori struggles but gets relieved upon realizing that is actually Shane. Shane asks her how much time they have, kissing her. Lori replies that they have enough time, and the two begin to undress. Lori wears Rick's wedding ring on a locket around her neck, which she and Shane eye with a flash of guilt before she takes the locket off and lays it on the grass. Shane says that Rick will always be a part of her, Lori adding that this also includes Shane and the two then proceed to have sex. In Atlanta, sealed inside a military tank, Rick says over the CB radio: "Whoever you are, I don't mind telling you I'm a little concerned in here." A young man's voice replies that Rick is surrounded by walkers and advises him to make a run for it while they're distracted and busy eating his horse. Rick asks if the man on the other end can see his bag of guns, but is told that it's not an option. Rick collects a grenade from the dead soldier and a shovel from the floor of the tank. He pops through the top hatch and dispatches a walker with his shovel, jumps off of the tank, and runs down a nearby sidewalk toward an alleyway, shooting walkers along the way. He turns around a corner and is surprised by a young Korean man, who reveals himself to be the one talking to him earlier over the tank radio. They race up a ladder to the roof, stopping to catch their breath on a platform halfway up. Glenn introduces himself and Rick thanks him for saving his life. While they walk across the roof, Glenn jumps to another rooftop which makes Rick speechless. Glenn insists that there is no other way to escape the walkers. Glenn says that Rick has to trust him and is ready to catch Rick. Rick sprints and jumps to the another rooftop but is falling. Glenn catches him and helps him up. Glenn makes a joke, and is happy that Rick survived. They continue their walk on the roof. Rick asks Glenn why he stuck his neck out for him back there, to which Glenn replies that he hopes that someone would do the same for him if he risks his life for someone else, leaving Rick in thought. Glenn leads Rick down a staircase to an alley, which is free of all but four walkers thanks to a bus blockade. Glenn radios his group, prompting two people wearing riot gear and brandishing baseball bats to emerge from the building and beat down the walkers. Rick and Glenn rush into the building, followed by the people in riot gear. Inside the store, Andrea kicks Rick to the ground and points a gun in Rick's face, furious at his recklessness. Andrea tells Rick that they are dead because of him. Morales informs Rick that his gunshots have attracted numerous hordes of walkers. Andrea seethes that Rick rang the dinner bell, as the group's attention turns to a crowd of walkers outside that are slamming themselves against the outer set of glass-pane doors, furiously trying to gain entry. The group questions Rick about what he was doing roaming around the streets of Atlanta aimlessly. He tries to explain he was trying to find his family in Atlanta and that he got surrounded by walkers. They think it was a suicide mission since every city got overrun. T-Dog tries to make radio contact with another unknown group, but fails to get a signal, wondering if they might have better luck on higher ground. Suddenly, muffled gunshots are heard. Andrea is worrying that this was "Dixon", as they all leave to investigate. On the rooftop, the group finds Merle Dixon firing at walkers in the street with a scoped rifle. Morales and T-Dog chastise Merle for wasting bullets and attracting more walkers. Merle scoffs at them and calls T-Dog "n*gger," triggering a fight. Merle easily subdues T-Dog and presses a handgun to his forehead, before spitting on his chest and proposing a change in leadership. The group is forced to vote in favor of Merle being their new leader. Suddenly, Rick hits Merle with the butt of the rifle and handcuffs him to a pipe. Rick tells Merle that things are different now and that the survivors should work together to survive, as he holds a gun to his head. Merle challenges that he wouldn't shoot him because he's a cop, but Rick answers that nobody can stop him to search for his family. He finds a stash of cocaine in Merle's shirt pocket and tosses the canister over the roof, much to Merle's chagrin. Later, Morales informs Rick there's no refugee center and that they are part of a larger group of survivors staying outside the city, but T-Dog can't reach them on the radio. Merle, still handcuffed to the pipe, insults Andrea by calling her a whore, but she stands her ground. With the streets no longer safe, Rick suggests they try to escape underground. Glenn, who formerly worked in one of the many Atlanta pizza stores, mentions that the old building might have a flood tunnel that would provide access to the sewers, prompting the group to head back downstairs to the basement. T-Dog stays behind to keep an eye on Merle, and to continue attempting to make contact with the rest of the group outside of Atlanta. In the basement, Glenn, Rick, Andrea and Morales stand at the top of a ladder that descends into darkness. Glenn infers that they all seem to expect him to be the one to explore the depths and concocts a plan to send Rick and Andrea to watch the storefront and Morales to come with him into the sewer. On the front of the store, Rick and Andrea keep watch. Andrea apologizes for the gun in Rick's face and the kick to the ground, Rick hopes to further earn the group's trust by helping them all get out of the mess they're in now. He understands what Andrea did, that people do things when they're afraid, but he tells her that she should take the safety off first. She says her gun was a gift of her father and she doesn't know how to use one. Rick is sure that they have occasion for Andrea to use it and that it will come in handy, adding that she got some guts which cause Andrea to blush. Back on the roof, T-Dog is still unsuccessfully trying to radio the others, and Merle tries to convince him to get the hacksaw in the bag of tools to set him free. He scoffs at Merle's offer. T-Dog thinks if he supports Merle it will only end in killing Rick and himself. Meanwhile, Glenn and Morales travel through the sewer until they reach a grated barrier. They discuss ways to cut through, but they soon abandon the idea when they see a walker devouring a rat on the other side. The walker reaches at them through the grate and they step back. In the store, Andrea spots a necklace with a mermaid pendant and thinks about her sister. Rick encourages her to take it, insisting shoplifting rules don't apply anymore. Andrea looks amused at Rick and pockets the necklace, when the walkers break through the exterior glass doors and begin pounding on the interior set. Glenn and Morales arrive to report that the sewer is not an option. Back on the roof, Rick spots a cube van at a nearby construction site a few blocks away. The group discusses the difficulty of moving past the walkers undetected. Andrea mentions that the walkers smell like the dead and the survivors don't. Rick latches onto the concept of scent and how the dead use it to differentiate between themselves and the living. A while later, Rick and Morales collect a walker that had been dispatched earlier in the alley. Inside, Rick is about to butcher the corpse with a fire axe, but pauses and decides to search the body. They acknowledge the walker's lost humanity. After the group shares a solemn moment of reflection, Rick begins hacking the dead body to pieces with the axe. Rick and Glenn then smear guts on themselves, disgusting everyone. Before leaving, Rick tosses T-Dog the key to Merle's handcuffs. Outside, Rick and Glenn crawl under the bus blocking the alley. They start to shuffle in to the streets, mixing in to the crowd of walkers unnoticed. Back in the store, T-Dog, Morales and Andrea race to the roof to follow Rick and Glenn with a pair of binoculars, and T-Dog tries again to radio the others. Merle gets let in on the plan for the first time, and he scoffs that he would pretty pissed if Rick is on the street with his keys. T-Dog holds up the key and dangles it tauntingly. Merle's face drops. Back at camp, Amy frets over the whereabouts of the group and her sister. Dale, working on his RV's troublesome radiator hose with Jim, reasons with Amy that worrying won't make it better. Meanwhile, Lori's doing laundry as Shane teaches Carl to tie knots. Suddenly, the radio crackles and squeaks, and T-Dog's garbled transmission comes through, explaining that they're trapped in the department store, surrounded by hundreds of walkers. Dale responds to the transmission but only radio silence follows. Shane insists that the group won't go after T-Dog and the others due the high chance to risk the groups' safety. Amy argues since her sister is out there risking her life for the whole group. Shane responds that Andrea knew the risks and if she is gone, Amy has to deal with it. Amy is furious and storms off. Lori follows to comfort her. Back in Atlanta, Rick and Glenn keep making their way through the crowd of walkers. Suddenly, rain begins to fall rather heavily, beginning to wash the guts' smell off of them. A nearby walker detects them as humans, and growls at Rick, who in turn, dispatches it with his axe. All walkers nearby start to come after them. Rick and Glenn fight the walkers while continuing to run to the construction site where the cube van is as the group on the rooftop watches. They are able to make it over the fence uninjured. Rick shoots at walkers while Glenn locates the keys. The crowd of walkers knocks down the fence and charges at them, but they speed away in the van just in time. On the roof, the group worries that they're being left behind. Rick orders Glenn to radio the group to get ready for pick-up, and mentions that they will need a way to lure the walkers away from the department store, eyeing a red Dodge Challenger sports car. Rick smashes the driver's side window to gain entry, causing the car's alarm to blare loudly. The group grabs their bags and rushes from the rooftop toward the loading dock, with no concern for unlocking Merle's handcuffs. T-Dog reluctanty turns back as Merle begs and runs with the key in hand to set him free. In the midst of all this, he accidentally slips on the rain-soaked roof and drops the handcuff key down a drain while also dropping the tool bag, making the hacksaw and other tools spill out. T-Dog apologizes, while Merle accuses him of dropping the key on purpose. He runs back to the stairwell and starts going down again while hearing Merle screaming in rage. He goes back up and chains the door shut so that the walkers can't get to him. Outside the loading bay at the back entrance of the store, with the walkers lured away by Glenn's car alarm, Rick pulls the van up and the group piles in, catching their breath as they drive away from the city. They look around at one another and a guilt-ridden T-Dog admits to the others he dropped the key, leaving Merle trapped on the roof, still handcuffed to a pipe. Andrea worries about Glenn's whereabouts. On the road, Glenn drives the red Dodge Challenger and speeds out of Atlanta while screaming in celebration. Other Cast Co-Stars * IronE Singleton as T-Dog Deaths *1 rat Trivia *First appearance of Andrea Harrison. *First appearance of Merle Dixon. *First appearance of Theodore Douglas. *First appearance of Jim. *First appearance of Alexander Morales. *First appearance of Glenn Rhee. (Physically) *The title of the episode, "Guts", refers to Rick and Glenn using walker's guts to cover their smell, so they can help the group escape Atlanta. Rick also acknowledges Andrea's strength and bravery with the definition of having some "guts".